Well isn’t this nice! A bunch of new trailers for me to pick over. Some with more info than others, so you will have to help me fill in the gaps in the comments.
First, Golmaal 4/Again/Whatever! As Niki predicted in the comments yesterday (because she is so smart!), it is indeed a ghost story. But my big disappointment is that Parineeti is not the ghost. Actually, my big disappointment is that Parineeti is not much of anything. Maybe it’s just the trailer, maybe they are selling the same Golmaal we are used to and focusing on Ajay and all his hijinks. But in the actual film the women will have something to do.
Or maybe not. Because it really doesn’t seem like there is space for them, does it? Also, my greatest fear realized, the trailer seems to hint towards a romance between Ajay and Parineeti. Noooooooooooo! Ajay and Tabu!!!! Ajay and Tabu!!!!! Again, maybe it is a trick on the audience, maybe it really is Ajay and Tabu and they just put in that Parineeti thing to throw us off. We can only hope.
Oh, and this is the first time Shetty’s done a ghost comedy I think? It’s a really rich area going all the back to Bhoot Bangla in the 50s, so I am excited to see him dig into it.
(Although he will never have a song this good)
And then there’s Mersal!!!! Which is a big deal, yes? Vijay is a big deal in Tamil film? And obviously any time there is a new Rahman film, especially a Tamil Rahman film, that is a big deal. The teaser sells us on the spectacle and the hero. A magician (apparently), so we get lots of cool tricks and bright lights and international acclaim, along with fight scenes.
What’s interesting is that they are holding off on the music. Like, the music is one of the big selling points, we get to see what’s going to be different about the action (magic stuff involved) and we get to see the hero being cool, but they are saving the music for later, as the big closer.
And then there’s something totally different! Small and nice and not subtitled. Vidya Balan playing the central role in kind of character study thing with a light touch. If I am following this correctly, the idea is that she has a sexy voice? And thus is offered a radio job? Or maybe I am misunderstanding it completely, tell me in the comments!
What’s interesting is that this is yet another character film with a female heroine. Yaaaay! And this time it really looks like no romance at all, right? I mean, even in Queen it was the failed romance which set everything in motion. Plus, Vidya seems to be playing something close to her real age, I’m not seeing any signs of “innocent young girl finding herself”, more like “mature woman experimenting with herself”.
Oh, and super distracted by her possibly playing a DJ again after Laga Raho Munna Bhai. Hopefully that is acknowledged somehow at some point so we can all move past it.
dontcallitbollywood 
This is off topic, but I just wanted to alert you that Newton has been picked as India’s official entry for the Oscars.
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Yes, I just saw that on twitter. It’s not playing anywhere near me, but if it ever shows up, I’ll try to check it out.
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I saw it at a film festival. Well worth your time, though I don’t think it’s worth an Oscar nomination. However, it’s definitely a better film than the ones they have been sending in for the past few years.
What really intrigues me is that the Oscar entry is supposed to be selected from all the films that have released from October 1, 2016 to September 30, 2017 (in India, they must also submit themselves to the Oscar committee). So how come this announcement is made before September is even over? Obviously some string pulling and rigging is going on, which is wrong, even if they pick a good film.
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Amazing!!
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Can’t wait for Tumhari Sulu!
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I am really hoping one of our Hindi speakers will tell us what the heck the trailer is about! Because it looks delightful, but I have no idea what is happening.
On Fri, Sep 22, 2017 at 8:51 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Yes! I don’t know why they don’t put subtitles on those trailers, especially in hindi movies and with a star like Vidya.
and I both hate and love that they revealed so little about the story. Hate because I want more, but love because I don’t like to know too much. Just right after seeing Tumhari Sulu (btw what sulu means?) I watched Chef trailer, and there is like all story in it – no need to watch the movie.
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Good point, with this film we have no idea who else is in it or what might happen.
On Fri, Sep 22, 2017 at 9:25 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Edit: I know what Sulu means, it’s only Vidya’s character name.
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Vijay is indeed a very big deal in Tamil films. The audio came out in August and was quite successful so I think they just focused on the film for the teaser. I’m actually really looking forward to this movie. I want my big budget, big spectacle fun film. 😊
My Hindi language skills are non-existent so I can’t answer your question but Tumhari Sulu looks good!
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I want my big fun film too! I am excited about Spyder, Judwaa, and this one all coming out back to back to back.
On Fri, Sep 22, 2017 at 9:29 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Starting from around 2015, there’s been a trend of horror-comedies in Telugu so I was expecting some to be coming out in Hindi as well. But I don’t think I’ll be watching Golmaal Again.
Yes, Vijay is a big deal! He and Ajith, who you saw in Yennai Arindhaal, are equals and they’re behind Rajinikanth in terms of mass fan following. I’ve liked a couple of Vijay movies but I’ve never really seeked out a movie just for him. Plus some of his biggest hits are remakes of Mahesh’s movies so I’ve never seen them. Anyway I really liked the Mersal teaser, it looks really fun! I thought Vijay’s first movie with Atlee, Theri, was decent. But this looks so much better than Theri. Atlee’s debut was Raja Rani which I really liked. Also Atlee was an assistant director of Shankar so he tends to have grand songs.
Tumhari Sulu looks cute!
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Tumhari Sulu is about a sex hotline.
Golmaal reminded me of the Govinda comedies from way back when. Though the series is even more mindless. I was disappointed they left Tusshar out of the trailer so much. Though the Nana Patekar reference was killer LOL It looks like fun. More fun than the “message” films we’ve been getting around the holidays. I hope Parineeti is as good as Kareena.
Mersal reminds me of classic 90s Bollywood. Actually I watched that I thought “Oh that’s what Jagga Jasoos wanted to look like!” LOL
Both Bhairav and Theri were very popular on TV here and the WTPs for both were launched with a great promotion so I’m hoping we might just see this in theatres in the north though it’s more likely that they’ll just release directly on TV. The hindi sat rights sold for a record 10.8c and I’m glad Goldmine Telefilms bagged it. They’re awesome!
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Have you seen 24 yet? Very similar look to Mersal, and I think you would really like it. And way way more imaginative visuals than anything I’ve seen in Hindi for a while.
On Fri, Sep 22, 2017 at 11:22 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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While doing my lists today I realized almost all of the recent films that looked original in terms of visuals were remakes!
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24 is SO COOL. The science, obviously, doesn’t hold up at all. But it has this whole steampunk practical look to it instead of the boring computer monitors everywhere thing, so I don’t even care that it makes no sense for this new age technology to be housed in a little brass watch.
On Fri, Sep 22, 2017 at 12:11 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I love steampunk!! Omg I love it so much. I should totally watch this film this weekend!!!
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YOU SHOULD!!! Plus, Rahman soundtrack, cute lead, and Nithya Menon is one of the two heroines.
And, just to prepare yourself, our hero plays 3 roles. Young hero, hero’s dorky father, and hero’s evil uncle. And he does a really good job! I kept forgetting it was the same guy.
On Fri, Sep 22, 2017 at 12:15 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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By the way similar to Suriya in 24, Vijay is playing three roles in Mersal. But I don’t know if he can pull it off because Suriya is a way better actor. Also another similarity is that both Samantha and Nithya Menen play the leads in Mersal as well. I think Kajal is in Mersal as well though.
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3 heroines???? I am trying to picture how that would even work. With the 2 heroines, you just have an interval break to split them up.
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I guess a heroine for each character. And I wouldn’t be surprised if Nithya has like a 5 minute part like in 24. I’m sure her part will be smaller than Kajal and Samantha’s.
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That’s too bad, I like Nithya the best of the 3 of them! Although I am awfully fond of Samantha too.
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Well though Nithya is the best actress out of the three, she’s nowhere the star the other two are.
I used to be a huge fan of Samantha until the time of Manam, but then she ended up ruining her face. Now it just makes me sad whenever I watch a movie of hers that came after Manam 😦
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Oh no! Really? Have a seen a film after Manam? Well, if I see this film it will be on the big screen so I can really study it.
On Fri, Sep 22, 2017 at 6:15 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Well, honestly it’s not really that she looks bad now but I used to love her before! And she used to look so cute and I feel like she didn’t need to get anything done. It was just disappointing for me.
For comparison, here’s a scene between her and Mahesh that was shot in 2013 in Seethamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu:
And here’s the trailer of Samantha’s big hit movie last year, A Aa:
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Oh, I see what you mean! it’s just slightly different in a way I can’t even pin point. Which makes it more irritating.
On Fri, Sep 22, 2017 at 6:32 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Right!
By the way, did you like the scene from Seethamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu? The romance in SVSC is one of my most favorite Mahesh romances. I selected that just because I wanted you to want to see the movie 🙂
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It’s too late! You’ve already given me your final list of films you want me to watch in order of priority!
On Fri, Sep 22, 2017 at 6:43 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Lol, that was before you had access to Hotstar!
Anyway, you’ll get through that list one day and I don’t care since you’re planning to watch Spyder.
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But only after you watch it! You still have to go opening night and tell me if it is terrible.
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I can’t go to Spyder on opening night 😦
I don’t have a ride, I have no company, and the timings don’t really work out for me. My friend who’s also a hardcore Mahesh fan are planning to watch together on Friday night as soon as I get home. And then hopefully I can find time to go to Judwaa 2 sometime on Saturday.
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Perfect! We have a matching plan. I’ll do Judwaa on Friday and warn you away if it is terrible so you can avoid it Saturday, you do the same for me with Spyder!
On Fri, Sep 22, 2017 at 6:58 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Yup! That works!
Though I’ll probably end up watching Judwaa 2 even if it’s bad. I mean I watched Dilwale in the theaters just for Varun, it can’t get any worse in my opinion.
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Golmaal looks incredibly stupid…and I’m looking forward to seeing it for Arshad, Tabu, and Parineeti. Ajay has also been known to deliver a good “straight man” line now and again, too. I’ve seen the first 3 and none were keepers, but I feel this weird urge to marathon them now!
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I’m just excited for another silly happy film! Mubarakan was too long ago.
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Stop rubbing it in that you’ve seen Mubarakan already! I need my Arjun fix!
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They released a small clip of what I’m guessing is Salman’s cameo in Judwaa 2. I think it was a good idea to bring up the hype.
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Oh fun! That’s way more than I was expecting, I was thinking like a tiny cameo in a song or something.
On Fri, Sep 22, 2017 at 10:08 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Right! I was just expecting a cameo in a song as well.
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